Prince uf Darkness

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About Prince uf Darkness

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Eggplant Wizard (+50)

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Location

Louisville, Colorado

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http://www.tonydickinson.net

Skype

Tony4813

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ShdwCastBassist

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Biography

I'm a musician hailing from the town of Louisville, CO. I'm primarily a Bass Guitar player, but I also play a lot of Guitar and dabble in Keyboards and Drums. My primary music is Metal and Funk, but I've been known to venture into many other styles.

Easily the biggest influence for this track was Dirty Loops. Also, Japanese Fusion bands like T-Square and Casiopea, and other Fusion artists like Alex Argento, Marco Sfogli, Guthrie Govan, The Aristocrats, etc.

Time flies...Apparently today marked the 5th year after I released Contra 4: Rocked 'n' Loaded with SnappleMan. Hopefully at least a decent portion of you know what it is, if not, it's a 13-track metal remix album featuring contributions from myself, SnappleMan, norg, Danimal Cannon, BrainCells, Christian Pacaud, Travis Moberg, Norrin_Radd, Chris Dlugosz, Marc-André Gingras, and of course the mastermind behind the soundtrack, virt! To celebrate I put the whole thing up on Youtube, and you can all get it on my Bandcamp page!
https://tonydickinson.bandcamp.com/album/contra-4-rocked-n-loaded

...just not live keys (btw <3 u OA and Stevo and DA and dio) Yes, some of you probably heard about this, and a few of you were there! At MAGfest 11, housethegrate, Ashane, ktriton and myself played some of our old DoD tunes as well as a couple non-DoD favorites (Walk on Water, anybody?) Since we all live apart we had maybe an hour TOTAL of practice before we played, so it's rough at points, but we had fun, I hope you guys enjoy it. After MAGfest I gathered up all of the video and audio and made a super-ghetto bootleg concert video, and it's finally up now. So if you missed it, or want to see it again, HERE YOU GO! Youtube playlist with all videos -
Links to individual songs:

http://dwellingofduels.net/forum/ Well, DoD has lived for a long time on The Shizz, but we felt it was time that it got it's own discussion forum, and it's also just the first step in a long series of website upgrades we're working on. DoD discussion will still be on The Shizz, but this location will be primary. Many of you DoD artists have already had their accounts pre-registered for security (i.e. don't want zMetallica posting as BrainCells or something). And Crimson has been sending out the information. So far I think he's only sent it out to Shizz accounts, but he might have done it over Facebook as well. If you try to register and your name is already taken, but you don't have any personal info from him, talk to him or me and we'll straighten it out. Rock on!!

Some of you already know about this, but I recorded bass for a solo guitar album called "Eleven Mysteries" by an Italian musician named Daniele Liverani. Daniele has worked with tons of other famous rock and metal musicians like Virgil Donati, Mark Boals, Daniel Gildenlow, Russell Allen, Jeff Martin, Philip Bynoe and Johnny Gioeli. Daniele found me on Youtube and contacted me through Facebook to recruit me onto this album. Lion Music (who has tons of other Progressive Metal acts) didn't have much money to give to Daniele for this release, so he was unable to recruit his usual motley crew of world-class musicians, so he hired younger musicians to work on the album. Marco Zago, the keyboardist, is a couple years younger than I am, and Paco Barilla, the drummer recorded these tracks when he was FIFTEEN. Obviously they're all Italian, BUT BY THE POWERS OF THE INTERNET, I recorded all my parts at home and sent them to him for mixing. The album has a style very similar to 90's Racer X or Dream Theater, and he mixed it that way too (REVERB YEEEEAAAAHHHH-). I did not do any writing on the album, and stayed fairly conservative to the parts he had pre-written, as I was basically going in blind and had no idea how far away he wanted me to stray from the bass lines, so I played it safe. But any bass-only flashy stuff and fills are things I've added in, and a couple tracks he re-arranged songs around those bass lines. The album's also been getting a lot of good reviews from many progressive rock & metal review pages. Here's a link list, copied and pasted from a message that Daniele sent me over Facebook, so a lot of these are in other languages. Here's a video of us all playing the opening track:
So I got 75 copies of the album, and 15 posters, and they're letting me sell the album! BUT, I'm only allowed to sell the CDs and not digital downloads. Therefore, my Bandcamp page has ~1 minute preview tracks and you can only buy the CD. Then it will try to get you to download the archive of the preview tracks, and I haven't figure out a way to turn that off. http://tonydickinson.bandcamp.com - So go ahead and buy if you like it, and the first 15 buyers will get a poster!

For legal reasons, let's call them Sans-Triberian Dorkestra. WARNING: High levels of TL;DR but it's well worth the read. Some of you might have heard about this already... I tried to keep it a secret but did a very shitty job about it, because I told at least half of the people on my AIM buddy list every little detail as they came along. Now for legal reasons due to the position I am in, they don't want me publicly discussing my role in the band. Well, at least the managers don't, the band members don't seem to give that much of a shit and let me take pictures with them behind-the-scenes, but at the very least, I'm going to use codenames for the band and its members (and please, do so as well...I don't want Google Alerts and shit popping up because someone in here used real names). Additionally, I'd like to keep my job, so I might have mods take this thread down after awhile so it's not just floating around. But you guys do deserve to know this, so I'm going to take the risk. HOW IT ALL BEGAN... Unbelievably, I didn't find them doing auditions or anything. They came to me. A woman by the codename of Danyell sent me an e-mail back in April with the subject "Sans-Triberian Dorkestra." And it read: "Hi Tony, I represent STD. We're a multi-platinum selling band. One of my colleagues found one of your videos on youtube and and sent it around the office and we all liked it. We'd like for you to call us so we can get more information from you." So obviously I was like . She had an e-mail signature displaying the name of the touring company she worked for, and I looked it up and it appeared that it was part of the whole STD organization. So I called Danyell and she told me that during their tours they like to use backup musicians, and the backup musicians are a good way to eventually work in newer members into the show. Then she told me that they were going to send me one of their songs, and that I was to record a video of myself playing the song and send it back to them. Then they would send it to STD's big boss, story writer, lyricist and producer codename Mault O'Meal, and if he liked it, they would fly me out for a real audition. I did the video, sent it off, Mault liked it and they told me that I was going to do the audition once they started gearing up for their next tour. A MONTH LATER... I found a playlist for one of the Winter 2010 concerts that STD did, so I started learning all of those songs. They didn't tell me to learn anything, I just wanted to impress them. It took me about a month to really get them all down solid, and this was 25-30 songs. Then in early June, I finally got another e-mail from Danyell asking me for my address, because Mault wanted to send me some gear and a jacket. So I get this package in the mail, and it's all of STD's CDs, a couple tour programs with lots of cool artwork, and a sweet heavy black denim STD jacket. (Which I will certainly be wearing at MAGfest censor-free) FAST FORWARD TO MID-AUGUST... They flew me out to Florida. They've paid for everything, got me a nice hotel room, rental car and paid for my airfare. On top of that, they're paying me $200/day to do the audition, and I was down there for 3 days. I flew down Monday, expected to do the audition Tuesday, and then fly back on Wednesday. But while I was getting my rental car, there was a minor snafu and I had to call one of the managers to get it straightened out. While I was on the phone with him he said "Hey, you want to go to the studio at 8 tonight? They have a little free time." I got to my hotel and checked in, ate some food and then went over to the studio. They had rented out an office suite and put all their stuff in it. But when I first got there, the windows and doors were all blocked out, and one of the doors had a keypad, and what I at first thought was a retina scanner, but actually was a camera. There was also a Hummer and a Mustang parked out front. So I thought "welp...I think I'm in the right place." But I was really intimidated and just stood outside waiting for someone to open the door. Eventually codename Agave Spitmann came and opened the door. Agave is STD's full-time sound guy, doing all of their recordings as well as live sound (and as a bonus, looks EXACTLY like what you'd imagine a 70's-era nerdy sound guy would look like). He told me to sit down in the lobby and that Mault was in the studio and would be out in a minute, and codename Hal Gitrelli was out and would be back soon. I got my bass out, warmed up, tuned up... and then I hear a car pull up, a guy get out and come in the building. We walked inside and I thought he looked like Hal, plus he was wearing all dark rocker garb, but it looked like he cut his hair though he was also wearing a hat. He said "What's up, brothuh?" and walked out of sight. I nervously spat out "...not much!" Then he came back and introduced himself "Hey I'm Hal, I'm the music director." And I replied "Oh of COURSE you are! Hey man, I'm a huge fan, love your work in Megadeth. Didn't recognize you without the hair though." And he said "Oh, it's all up in the hat." We sat down on the lobby couches and he asked my why I was there (I guess he didn't know. The managers are the ones that organize these auditions and if they only tell one person it will be Mault.) So I told him about the video and all that. Then he asked me if I knew any of their material, which I replied "Yeah, I learned your entire winter setlist." He laughed, smiled and said "Of course you did." Not in a disbelieving tone, more in a "Well that's pretty dandy" sort of tone. Then we go into one of the office rooms where they had some small amps and a keyboard setup. Hal grabbed an acoustic guitar and started shredding some awesome Hal Gitrelli blues licks, making me start a creamery in my shorts. Then he suggests we play through the song I auditioned on, so we do, but we don't even get all the way through the song. Al stops, shakes my hand and says "That sounds awesome, man!" Then Mault O'Meal comes in the room, I repeat all the previous stated information to Mault, and then we play that same song, still not playing all the way through. Then we play a second song, which is more of a power ballad type song, but also is kinda groovy, so they used that judge my "fit in the pocket" abilities. Still didn't play all the way through. They shook my hand. Then Mault rambles on for about an hour about many subjects like the economy, state of the music industry, music school, farmville, killing bankers, etc. He also told me that he has original copies of letters Thomas Edison wrote to a guy instructing his on how to create the wax cylinders for Edisons' phonograph. He also paused, reached into his pocket, pulled out a handful of coins and asked what my birthday was. I told him it was 1989, then he tosses me a coin from 1889. I think it's a dollar coin, and it has Queen Victoria on one side and Mephistopheles on the other (Mephistopheles is a character in one of STD's albums). And he said "Here, I hope that brings you good luck." And it resides in my wallet right now. So he's rambling on and then stops and says, "Alright you call [the main manager guy] and tell him that you have the backup spot, and he'll fill you in on all the details." And then keeps rambling on. I'm just blown away... THEN THE NEXT DAY I'm back at the studio because I wanted to drop off some of my albums, but instead they just invited me in anyway. I also met one of the other main STD composers codenamed Juan Olive. I also met one of STD's many singing babes, Quela Weeves, who was there working on a demo for one of their new songs. I ended up having dinner with them. After dinner, they invited me into the studio to watch them work on music. Mault asked me if I was in any ensembles at school, and I told him that I was in the Jazz Guitar ensemble. He asked me my teacher's name, so I told him Dan. Then Mault pulls out a winter 2009 tour book, opens to his page, takes out a sharpie and writes: To Dan, an artist can create 1000 works of art, but a teacher can create 1000 artists. With sincere admiration, Mault O'Meal P.S. Enclosed you will find a junk food fund, as junk food is an important part of the creative process. Then Mault goes over to his jacket, pulls out a fat stack of cash, counts out ten $100 bills and hands it to me, and tells me "Here's for your preparation and enthusiasm, and you should give one of those to your teacher." Blown away again. And for you Megadeth fans. As Hal was recording some of his guitars, he randomly started playing the intro riff to Holy Wars. Then he stopped, turned to me, smiled and said, "That's all you're gonna get." The whole group is really some of the friendliest and most hospitable people I've ever met in my life. They made me feel that I was welcome in the band and that they wanted me there. Whether you like STD's music or not, just know that they're NOT the typical rockstar inflated egos. They make lots and lots and LOTS of money, but they're not arrogant about it. Imagine the friendly talkative Irish Catholic father from Brooklyn, and the friendly talkative Italian father from Brooklyn that are best friends and act like an old married couple, that's Mault O'Meal and Hal Gitrelli. Here are group pictures I took with Mault O'Meal, Hal Gitrelli, Agave Spitmann and Quela Weeves really just to prove to you that I'm not making this shit up. Mault, Agave, PuD, Quela Mault, Agave, PuD, Hal AND NOW... I'm the backup bass player for STD. It's very unlikely that I'll be playing live, but I have to learn the live show and I'm going to be rehearsing with them next week in Omaha. That's about 40 songs, including the whole previous winter setlist, but I have to relearn those songs in the two subtly different ways the West band and East band plays them. They're not allowing me to take any pictures, so I doubt I'll really come back with anything to show you guys. But they're paying me $2000 for the rehearsals and $3000 to be the backup. This means I can build a computer and buy a new guitar! SWEET! My 3 oldest brothers bought me this new Music Man Sterling as a birthday/christmas/congratulatory gift because I need a good 4-string to play with the band. I popped a hipshot on it because STD has some songs in D: But again, it's VERY UNLIKELY that I'll be doing anything live. Unless of course one of the bass players (STD has a West and an East band) gets in an unfortunate accident which would be really nice but I am not liable for anything anyone of you do about that. So right now I'm in somewhat of a "paid internship" position. Give it a few years, I say. They are expanding rapidly. Codenamed Jerek Weeeeeeeeeland started out in STD in my same position on keyboards. Now he's lead keyboardist and East band's music director. So yeah, that's the big secret I have that you guys might have heard about. I can talk about it in private and we wont need to use codenames, but DAMMIT DO NOT ASK ME FOR FREE TICKETS, BACKSTAGE PASSES OR SUPER TOP SECRET UNRELEASED MATERIAL THAT I TOTALLY HAVE RIGHT NOW because you're not getting it! See you guys live at the local 14,000 person arena in...I dunno...2015?

So I have a birthday on the 28th and I was going to harass Larry again to suggest that posting this song on that day would be a nice present. Guess my harassment worked TOO much Anyways, thanks for the comments guys. Yeah, lots of people comment on that ending and I understand...I worked on this the few days before the DoD deadline so I had to kind of give up on nitpicking the time-consuming things like structure. It was basically like "Oh well this whacky key change thing is kinda neat! But crap I'm so low on time and need to get recording bass and guitars!...........SCREW IT" Ah well.

I have like 2 left. I'll be getting a new shipment soon, though. That's the idea, chronological order. Don't forget "I Need Scissors! 61!" The only thing is I don't know how much better I'll be at music production in another 2-3 years when I'd probably do PuD's DuDs vol. 2. The biggest reason for PuD's DuDs was I learned a crap load about mixing and stuff in-between Zero Light and the making of the album, and I seriously doubt I will learn that much again in the same amount of time.

Alright, total bump from beyond the grave, but I setup a Bandcamp page and put PuD's DuDs on it. You can now stream the album, and actually listen to the differences instead of buying it in good faith from my crap wordpress shopping system! http://tonydickinson.bandcamp.com/

But I did. I guess this where we're just going to have to agree to disagree on what really defines a song. In my opinion, if you take a song and mute the melody, you'll have more of that song than muting everything except the melody, especially in an arrangement. Of course I understand the logic behind wanting to have the majority of the song have melody, but I'm just saying that that shouldn't necessarily apply to every genre of music. If THPOB was a completely different song, totally unrelated to the chord progression and feel of the source, I would probably agree with it having lack of source. Anyway, I think what strikes me the most about this song is the main drum/bass/keys theme from 0:00-1:30 and again from 1:56-2:43 basically being the main theme of the song. I can't find anything remotely sounding like it in the source. If you want to go all stopwatchy, those sections total 137 seconds, which is more than half of the song. wuv u larry